It was common knowledge that a deck of cards had 52 cards.
There were 4 types of suits: Diamonds, Clubs, Hearts, and Spades. Each suit comprised 13 ranks, going from Ace to 10, followed by Jack, Queen, and King.
And within a poker table, each player was dealt two cards with the dealer showing 5 different types of cards on the table.
The goal of a poker game was to get the best hand utilizing the two cards that were dealt to the player's hand.
At the moment, the board already had 5 cards revealed on the board: Spades of 9, 10, J, Q, and a Diamond 2.
The chance of getting a straight flush was quite high and a chance of a royal straight flush was also on the board.
"Hey, staller, are you done with your nonsense already?" Suddenly, a bearded man with fancy accessories clad all around him shouted in an annoyed tone.
"You kept rambling on a deck of cards here and there, but not making a move. I'll call the floor to have you kicked out for stalling!" He continued.
Amidst the threat, the dealer who sat at the center of the poker table had no choice but to intervene as well.
"Mister Damien Pearce, please make your move within 30 seconds." The dealer turned to the left side and warned the suited man.
The suited man's hair was black, with a pair of glasses. He was rather composed and exuded an aura of confidence despite being warned.
"Ah, it appears that Mister Howie is afraid that I might back out from the hand and wanted to warn me not to fold." Damien chuckled.
His eyes gazed at the bearded man, otherwise known as Howie, a filthy rich trader.
"Hmph, so you're going to fold after talking big earlier?" Howie rolled his eyes with an unamused expression. "And here I thought I actually got to enjoy some fun. But it's just another person who talks big but has nothing to back it up."
"Haha, there's no need for provocation. I've said all those to warn you that the pot is already 500,000 dollars and I still have a remaining 2 million dollars. It's not wise for you to lose more to me." Damien shook his head and pushed all his remaining chips.
"I bet all in." He then said and flashed a grin.
However, the moment he called all in, Howie suddenly slammed his palm on the table.
He wasn't infuriated or anything, but rather, he was exhilarated.
"Hahaha, that's why youngsters like you, who don't understand the world, should stay home and drink milk!" Howie snickered.
"Now I may not have an Ace of Spades, but I do have this lovely card to complete the highest straight flush." He then revealed one of his hidden cards: the spades of King.
After saying his piece, Howie easily pushed all his chips on the table without hesitation. Victory was his.
With him holding the King of Spades, it effectively combined with the Spades of 9, 10, J, and Q for a straight flush. Additionally, there was no way for his opponent to have a better hand that could beat him.
Quads can't beat a straight flush, and by the off chance, Damien got the 8 of Spades, it would still be a weaker straight flush.
"The winner is…" With that in mind, the dealer was about to announce the winner of this hand to be Howie, until he was interrupted.
"Hold up," Damien raised his hand and stopped the dealer from being too hasty with his action.
"Huh? What kind of crap are you trying to pull?" Howie raised an eyebrow, and almost immediately, two men in black behind him were ready to pull their guns out to point at Damien.
"If you want to back up now, then you must be joking." He warned solemnly.
"No, why would I back up?" Unfazed by the atmosphere, Damien curled his lips upward. "It's just that Mister Howie's age is probably affecting his memory. You forgot that the game we play isn't regular poker, but a game of Shadow's Hand."
Initially confused, Howie thought the man had gone insane and was spouting nonsense to not lose his wealth. However, his eyes then widened when he witnessed Damien flipping his card over.
The first card revealed was a Joker.
"Huh… What's going on?" Feeling nervous, Howie's expression turned ugly with the second revelation.
It was as if time had slowed down immensely when Damien flipped over a second Joker.
The dealer became stunned and astonished by the hand.
"D-Double Joker…" He stuttered, their mouth left agape. "M-Mister Damien had won this hand with a Royal Straight Flush!"
"Impossible!" Instantly, Howie slammed his palm once again. Except this time, he wasn't exhilarated, but rather enraged.
With two Jokers in hand, that was essentially guaranteed the highest winning combination no matter what was shown on the board.
And just like that, Damien's hand was essentially an Ace of Spades and King of Spades.
Meanwhile, Damien casually stood up, fixed his tie, and smiled lightly.
"That's why I was telling you the information from earlier, Mister Howie. A deck of cards has 52 cards, but not in Shadow's Hand, where Jokers are in the play." He said.
Howie bit his lips tightly in frustration.
The chances of someone being dealt two Jokers in one hand were even lower than the chance of getting a Royal Straight Flush. He couldn't have known that his beliefs and confidence in holding the trump King of Spades would be his undoing.
"Thank you for your money, Mister Howie. I'll gladly use them with care." Damien mused and walked away.
Sometime later, he exchanged the chips for money and rushed toward the restroom. He went to one of the stalls and locked the door. There, he began changing his outfit, as well as trashing his glasses and tearing off a face mask.
'Heh, that old man is probably raging and ready to retaliate. The mission is quite successful.' Damien thought.
After a swift transformation, he now appeared like a completely different person and exited the casino through the front door while carrying a black briefcase filled with cash.
The nighttime was dark and it was raining heavily, but there were many men in black running amok.
They each had an earpiece and were communicating. Soon, they dashed away to the backdoor area, almost as if they were trying to chase after someone.
He remained completely nonchalant and walked away at a steady pace. Even when some of the men in black brushed past him, none of them suspected anything.
'Villains all have one thing in mind and that they believe everyone is sneaky like them.' Damien knew Howie would play dirty in the end and would get his people to snatch his money back.
However, Howie would never anticipate that not only was he unafraid of the retaliation. He was also bossy enough to walk through the front door like nothing ever happened. The more nonchalant and relaxed he looked, the more the people Howie hired would ignore him.
Why was that?
The suspicious one feared being caught, but the confident or innocent one never feared being caught. Such a common mindset was relatively easy to think about, but people just tend to overthink and believe there were many big-brain actions involved.
Ignoring the rain pouring down on him, drenching his new suits and hair, Damien went to the street, ignoring all the cameras.
The cameras might be capturing his face, but his face was already a different one from what Howie recognized.
As he turned to the hidden alley, ready to use the underground tunnel to flee the scene, something shiny and shimmering caught his attention.
"What's that?" Damien was intrigued, but rationality told him otherwise to not check what it was. Thus, he decided to ignore it, but never did he anticipate the shiny object would suddenly fly to him.
Alarmed, Damien hurriedly tried to dodge, but to no avail.
As the shiny object changed its trajectory to follow through his sudden shift of movement, Damien was able to take a glimpse of it.
'A card-shaped?' He was confused by the situation.
Unfortunately, there was not much else to comprehend when the shiny object penetrated him and integrated itself into his body, and for a moment, nothing special happened.
"Eh, did I hallucinate after drinking some wine?"
He quickly checked his body and vision to ensure everything was alright. 'A card penetrated me but nothing happened? Was I that paranoid?'
But in the next second, he felt a sudden thump near his chest. His eyes started to bleed and soon, he found his strength leaving him.
His consciousness was drifting away, and before he lost his vision completely, he saw a Joker laughing.
"A Joker laughing at me? Who is pulling such a prank?" He murmured, feeling an intense heat that threatened to consume him whole. The heat forced him to be unable to think or see anything further.
'I was so careful though.' Filled with regrets, Damien fainted on the spot. Heavy rain continuously poured down on him.